There are three projects.
- The Global Oceanic Environmental Survey (GOES) is a citizen science project.
- Indigenous Project, clean drinking water and sanitation
- Mangrove, seagrass, coral, dolphin and ecosystem center, Project Bocus del Toro
1. Stage 1 of the project is completed; we now need to ramp up.
We are currently in Bocas del Toro, Panama, after sailing here from Scotland three years ago. During the passage, we conducted the largest citizen science project in the Atlantic Ocean to measure marine plankton productivity, microplastic pollution, and partially combusted carbon pollution.
The first phase is complete, and a peer-reviewed report has been published.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364821580 Climate Disruption Caused by a Decline in Marine Biodiversity and Pollution
We will continue the www.GOESfoundation.com project with our own funds, but we would like to increase the number of sailing vessels from 30 to 100, and then to 200. As a result, the survey will be the world’s largest marine citizen science project for gathering oceanic data from all oceans. Due to the prohibitively high cost of sending ships into the middle of the ocean, oceanographic ships are currently not collecting this data.
To move the project forward, we would need to expand our existing base at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Innovation Centre and begin funding PhD students to crunch the data.
Project SUCCESS. The budget is £1 million, with ongoing funding of £250,000 per year for the next five years.
Carbon dioxide is responsible for approximately 20% of climate change, we have ignored nature and marine biodiversity, and last year I gave the first ever talk on the oceans at COP26. It may appear unbelievable, but we are not addressing the root causes of climate change or protecting the oceans. The GOES project aims to raise awareness and collect data that will allow informed decisions to be made. Every year, our Linkedin post on the subject receives 3.5 million views.
Presentation on GPES at COP 26, https://youtu.be/ORGxHr7GqrQ
2. Indigenous people drinking water is a project.
I’ve spent the last 35 years developing www.DrydenAqua.com, where we recycle 50% of coloured glass bottles in Scotland and Switzerland to make AFM activated filter media. AFM replaces sand in sand filters, which treat over 99% of our drinking water. Dryden Aqua Ltd is the world’s largest manufacturer of glass recycling filter media. I have now sold all of my shares in the company in order to devote my time to environmental projects. I created all of the products, and I helped provide over 1 million water treatment systems around the world. AFM has the potential to eliminate all gastric parasitic infections in humans, which would account for 60% of all disease worldwide.
We (my wife and I) are assisting Governance.org in Panama with drinking water and sanitation for the Guna and Embera people. The Embera people live in the rainforest of Chagres National Park which inspired James Cameron’s film Avatar. We visited the real tree of life and the source of water and discovered it to be littered with plastic.
Please see our YouTube channel below.
Eden Cycle waste water treatment obtain a copy of the report
The government provided them with a pipe for 60,000 USD to bring the water down 2.5 kilometres from the tree to the village, but as you can see from the images, it is polluted with atmospheric drop out plastic and Oxysoil containing ferric and aluminum. We want to improve the water supply by installing a proper drinking water system that also provides enough water for sanitation. Chief Zarco’s grandfather, the village chief, taught the Apollo 11 astronauts about jungle survival. However, the people have been ignored; indigenous people make up 5% of the world’s population and manage 80% of the ecosystem. Chief Zarco also represents all indigenous peoples in Central America, so a collaboration with the Embera could have far-reaching implications.
The cost of Project Embera’s drinking water is estimated to be $100,000 USD.
Note: My wife and partner, Diane Duncan, is a former Highlands and Islands Development Board economic development director who wrote the first UK low carbon policy report over 20 years ago. Her contributions are only now being recognised.
3. Bocus Project Environmental Education Centre
We sailed from Scotland to Bocas del Toro, which we had identified as a unique environment.
Mangroves in the tropical rainforest
The coral reefs
Seagrass
80 dolphins in a genetically distinct colony
A one-of-a-kind archipelago threatened by tourism and pollution.
YouTube video of a storm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean; https://youtu.be/zoW-CoUPbps
Our plan is to buy the plot of land depicted in the video below.
https://youtu.be/Bv vKPGziaI
We will pay for the land entirely with our own money, but we intend to develop it as an ecological centre for public education, indigenous people’s education, and research. We’re collaborating with Geoversity, and I’ve been appointed Chair of Oceans and Water Innovation.
Vermont University will offer assistance through https://panacetacea.org/resources/.
Although it is still early in the development process, we will require additional resources to complete the site. Everything is connected as one integrated system, including the tropical rainforest, mangroves, seagrass, coral reefs, dolphins’ fish, and coral, and it affects our weather.
We now know that even achieving net zero carbon emissions by the end of the decade will have no effect on climate change. We will still lose the oceans, experience catastrophic climate change, and potentially lose 90% of humanity. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63657-6
We will need resources for a microscope, underwater microphones, viewing platforms, visitor and student housing, and to cover the costs of indigenous people’s staff, among other things. We intend to make the facility self-sustaining; we will spend $500,000 USD of our own money, but we will most likely require match funding to make it all work.
500,000 USD for Project Bocus, dolphins, and an eco-center